A Further Contribution to the Study of the Mortuary Customs of the North American Indians eBook

Others, with more respect for their dead, buried
them in sepulchers made with niches, where they
placed maize and wine and renewed the same annually.
With some, a mother dying while suckling her
infant, the living child was placed at her breast
and buried with her, in order that in her future
state she might continue to nourish it with her milk.

BURIAL IN MOUNDS.

In view of the fact that the subject of mound-burial
is so extensive, and that in all probability a volume
by a member of the Bureau of Ethnology may shortly
be published, it is not deemed advisable to devote
any considerable space to it in this paper, but a few
interesting examples may be noted to serve as indications
to future observers.

The first to which attention is directed is interesting
as resembling cist burial combined with deposition
in mounds. The communication is from Prof.
F.W. Putnam, curator of the Peabody Museum of
Archaeology, Cambridge, made to the Boston Society
of Natural History, and is published in volume XX
of its proceedings, October 15, 1878:

* * * He then stated that it would
be of interest to the members, in connection
with the discovery of dolmens in Japan, as described
by Professor Morse, to know that within twenty-four
hours there had been received at the Peabody Museum
a small collection of articles taken from rude dolmens
(or chambered barrows, as they would be called in
England), recently opened by Mr. E. Curtiss, who
is now engaged, under his direction, in exploration
for the Peabody Museum.

These chambered mounds are situated
in the eastern part of Clay County, Missouri,
and form a large group on both sides of the Missouri
River. The chambers are, in the three opened
by Mr. Curtiss, about 8 feet square, and from
4 1/2 to 5 feet high, each chamber having a passage-way
several feet in length and 2 in width, leading
from the southern side and opening on the edge
of the mound formed by covering the chamber and
passage-way with earth. The walls of the chambered
passages were about 2 feet thick, vertical, and well
made of stones, which were evenly laid without clay
or mortar of any kind. The top of one of
the chambers had a covering of large, flat rocks,
but the others seem to have been closed over
with wood. The chambers were filled with clay
which had been burnt, and appeared as if it had fallen
in from above. The inside walls of the chambers
also showed signs of fire. Under the burnt
clay, in each chamber, were found the remains
of several human skeletons, all of which had
been burnt to such an extent as to leave but small
fragments of the bones, which were mixed with
the ashes and charcoal. Mr. Curtiss thought
that in one chamber he found the remains of 5
skeletons and in another 13. With these skeletons
there were a few flint implements and minute fragments
of vessels of clay.